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"Were destroyed," Aria whispered

Xavier nodded "It was a relatively good life here once"

"It will be again" Max lifted the saddle and tossed it onto a sawhorse "Where is here? You’ve told us all these stories of far off lands and countries, of kings and wars and ies, but you’ve never really told us about this land This place What was it called?"

"Pennsylvania It was once called Pennsylvania, and it was at one time a part of the United States"

"Pennsylvania," Aria found she liked the strange word as she sounded it out She’d read about the United States in a couple of books, but she’d never heard of Pennsylvania "Tell us about it," she encouraged "All of it"

Xavier smiled at her as he settled onto a bale of hay and started to regale them Aria put the brush down as she found herself drawn forward She settled onto the bale beside hian to polish it It never failed to as he did, and how astute he was at pointing out details she never would have noticed otherwise She becarossed in his words that she didn’t even notice the sun was setting until Max pointed it out

"We should head back, I’"

Aria rose from the bale and wiped the hay from her pants She followed thees that had already been rendered Most of the ss had been torn down and re up There were smiles and friendly waves froh complete trust and amicability still hadn’t been solidified, they were already ood start on a world that Aria had never dreaates that had been battered beyond repair had been taken down Though they would be replaced, they would also be left open as an invitation for everyone to move freely in and out of the palace town Most of the blood draining facilities had been destroyed during the battle The one that remained had been emptied of all devices used to bleed and torture humans and had been reopened as a donation center that see well Or at least she hadn’t heard of any proble outside waiting to go in as they passed by it

She stayed close to Xavier as they traversed the streets toward the looht of it still caused an uneasy pit to for better accusto her place within it, soo

To in the stables, she decided To to hide froure out a way to live again in this world without hiure out where she fit in; she simply couldn’t avoid it anymore She could be helpful, she would be helpful It hat her father would expect of her and she wasn’t going to let him down

Xavier and Max followed her up to her roo to their own rooht Williae tray of food when they arrived It was one of the few ti the day she had a chance to see her brother He had taken to burying hih he was still on crutches She understood his desperate need not to think, she had the saed hi it with food She plopped onto the couch and began to eat with a gusto she hadn’t experienced in awhile It felt good, for once she felt alain, and she welcomed the sensation "Did you know that this was once Pennsylvania?" Max asked

"What is a Pennsylvania?" William demanded

Xavier was more than happy to fill him in as Aria went back for seconds She wondered if Braith would return to eat with thehts he and Daniel were here for dinner but sometimes they didn’t make it in time

After dinner she retreated to the bedroo She was used to Braith being curled around her before she fell asleep, holding her as she cried, coh her sorrow After she’d stuffed herself to near bursting though, sleep had dragged her into its deep depths Now, as the blankets were pulled back and the bedsprings creaked, she akened by the pressure of his weight on the mattress

"Braith," she whispered

"Go back to sleep love"

His ar her back against his solid chest as her hand stroked over the hair on the corded muscles of his arms She loved those ar Her heart began to haan to stir and awaken within her She’d shut herself down to hiht she would be leaving, but after her ti She didn’t knoould happen in the future, and in that moment she didn’t care, it didn’t uaranteed was the present, and she was going to start living in it

She could barely catch her breath as soh her li frohtly open door of the bathrooray eyes, the firnificent face and square jaw

She was uners traced over her cheeks, pressed briefly against her lips before slipping back to brush her hair aside "You ate again"

Her appetite hadn’t fully returned over the three weeks since she’d lost her father, but she’d started to put weight back on Even the bite es upon her skin thanks to a daily dose of Braith’s blood Though he still stubbornly, and annoyingly, refused to feed from her "I did"